Nothing else matters
by Dresner1817
Summary: With the Joker dead, Arkham city shut down, Gotham city at it's knees, and Harley Quinn's dream of taking vengeance against the Dark Knight shattered. Batman takes pity on the mourning Harlequin and hopes that he can help her before she descends even deeper into insanity and realize that they both have something to come together about. Set after HQR, Batman x Harley Quinn. Two-Shot
1. Chapter 1: Ashes to Ashes

_**A little five chapter or less story set after the 'Harley Quinn's Revenge' DLC of Batman: Arkham City. I decided to have this side piece after finishing the game and the DLC as a breath of fresh air from writing for OC's in my other B-Man Story, 'In The Grey'. I'm a Harley Quinn and Batman fan and this is just my 'What if' Alternate ending to the HQR DLC. **_

_**Enjoy Harley x Bruce Shippers :) R&R F&F  
**_

_**With Love ~Dresner**_

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Batman stared into the burning remains of the Steel mill as it burned in the fiery explosion of the Joker's final joke, The Harlequin's revenge. The distraught, angry, and unstable Harley Quinn and her fit of mournful angst fueled by her insanity and her inability to even function with out the Joker was his final chest piece in his plans. Though it was not the Joker's mind and planning that made the siege, maybe in the Joker's final hours on earth he knew Harley would lose her mind and try to kill the Batman and herself.

After all, going to hell would be boring without his minx and Batsy to keep him company as he rotted in hell for his crimes. They were, for all intense purposes, his only 'Friends'. Sure their were Two-Face, penguin, and the others who he worked with or against in his years. But they did not know him like the Batman or Harley knew him.

The great flames spread toward near by living quarters like an over cook pot of rice, over flowing from the main mill and douching near by buildings with fire. The statues and monuments to the Joker stood outside melted together into a complex entanglement of deformed limbs and soul cracking smiles, their misshapen features stood as a testimony to the formlessness of modern art. Windows exploded from the intense heat and the crashing of joker based figures against the ground, sending shock waves across the mill, showering both the Dark Knight and the mourning Harley Quinn in melting glass.

"You should have left me to die!" The Harlequin shouted in pain as she sobbed on the snow and glass covered ground. "Then I could have been with- With.. MISTA J!" She yelled, throwing her fists on the ground with tears wiping away the rest of her black eye shadow and white face make up.

Batman turned to scold her, but paused momentarily and walked toward her throwing his cape around her to shield her from the snow and glass that rained from the sky. "Your not the only one to lose someone you cared for." He replied in his hard and stoic voice with a hint of compassion. Harley looked up with hate, fear, sadness, and in some ways compassion at the man who, in her twisted mind, killed her twisted beloved. His voice frighten her since he never spoke to her with any hint of compassion before. Memories of being with Mista J began to fill her destroyed mind with both remorse and terror as he would use this voice before planting her on the ground with a backhand or a sucker punch.

"Serves you right B-man!" Harley bit back, trying to fight the awkwardness of the situation. "Serves... You... Right." She spat as she broke into tears once more.

But the Batman didn't shrug off and picked her up off the ground until they were looking face to face. "I remember when I first saw you in Blackgate. I remember when you weren't this lost girl pandering to a mad man for approval. I remember when I saved you from him and the cold reception you gave me." Batman said in a calm and warmer tone than Harley could have ever expected out of the Dark Knight. "I knew somewhere in my mind that he had already dug into you and planted a seed that would soon grow into his Harley Quinn. It was inevitable, Harleen. But I should have stopped it then... But even after Blackgate, After the Asylum, and even now I should have saved you from him. Now I only wish I could have saved him from himself, and maybe then I could have saved you from yourself..."

His voice became tighter, as if he was trying to hold back something deep with in himself. He had to, The Batman never showed anything besides contempt for his enemies. Harley could sense it on his breath, in his words, that he was just as broke as she was about all that had transpired in the last few weeks following Arkham city and the death of the Joker.

"Ba.. bats.. Batsy?" Harley manages to spit out. "Are you- You? Sad about Mista J goin away?" She asks in a child like manor, as if she still believed in 'The clouds taking away her loved ones'.

Batman said nothing, only looking to the ground and away from Harley in shame.

But Harley knew that below his stone like appearance of Batman, Mista J was right about him. Batman cared for the Joker as some kind of twisted friend or partner in the professional sense. She knew the score: Without the Batman, their was no Joker. And maybe it is the same, but backwards. But what of herself? Without the Joker, Would their be no Harley Quinn?

Harley takes the knife out of her belt and throws it far away from her and Batman before rapping herself around him in a mournful embrace.

Maybe the Batman and the Jester understood each other after all...

The two soon disappeared into the darkness together, hand in hand, leaving Commissioner Gordon and the newly arrived Robin in a state of confusion.

"Is he alright?" Gordon asks as he and Robin watch them walk away from the destruction and turmoil of Arkham City.

"Yeah..." Robin remarked as GCPD collected their freed comrades from Harley's siege. "He's alright."


	2. Chapter 2: Rebuilding a Life

_**Here's the End for this Short story, or Two shot, or whatever. Enjoy :)**_

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Far away from the burning steel mill was a destroyed and derelict Ferris wheel looking out into the openness of sea. Their on the very top carriage sat Harley Quinn and the Dark Knight staring into the nothingness of the open sea, a far cry from the death and destruction of Arkham city behind them. They sat close to each other, mainly so Harley could stay warm in the cold Gotham winter.

As they stared into the calmness of the empty sea, Harley asked the question that drove her to near death.

"Did you kill Mista J?" She asked in an innocent and heartfelt tone.

Batman casts his eyes to Harley without saying a word to her. Through her tear filled and make up ran eyes Harley could see in the Dark Knight cold eyes that it wasn't true.

"You've never killed a man in ya life, eh B-man?" She asks with a heart full of shame.

Batman only shook his head side to side and soon Harley broke out in tears again, This time for herself and the shame she felt for the things she did. "I'm sorry B-man."

"It's fine Harleen." He replies as he looked out to the sea once more, thinking deeply about the night when he watched the Joker die. "He jumped on me, broke the vile... He did it to himself." He told her.

She too looked to the sea for answers, as well as the courage to accept that the Joker died by his own hand and not the Batman's. "Some how, deep down, I knew you couldn't do Mista J in." Harley told him coming a little closer to him.

"Your to much of a angel to do that. After all, you saved my life more than once. Not only from Mista J, but from myself. I guess your not a bad guy after all." She said in a calm and sweet tone.

"I wish I could have saved him." Batman said as he continued to stare toward the sea. "Even after the killings, the riots, the death, the destruction, and even the poisoning. I still would have saved him..."

"I know you would've." Harley replied, putting her head on his shoulder and rubbing his back with her hand.

"It's why I put on the Cowl, To save people. Not to kill them."

The two became noticeably quiet for a moment as the wind blew calmly against them.

Harley got her closure, It wasn't Batman who killed her Mista J, but it was his own doing that got him killed. Mista J aside Harley soon realized for the first time since she became 'Harley Quinn' that all she had in her life was now gone. The game, the joy, The Dream... Had collapsed in front of her. Not only her dream, but her life was gone now. Becoming Harley had destroyed Dr. Harleen Quinzel in the eyes of the world, their was nothing to go back to. She was alone... Or was she?

Bruce on the other hand held mixed feelings about the end of the Joker. On one had, Gotham was safe from the anarchy of the Joker. But on the other, he had lost a friend in the loosest possible terms. In the depths of his Soul, Batman came to terms with the Joker being right about one thing and one thing only: That they understood each other.  
Bruce remembered a theory a wise man once told him about the true goal of Evil: Evil does not want to live at all, but they wish to die at the hands of the good to validate their subconscious estimate of their own worth. The truth is that they do not want to live at all, they are the lovers and worshipers of death only wanting for some virtuous soul to bring an end to their retched existence. This is why evil can not be appeased, whatever you give them its not what they want. At the depths of their soul they want you to end their miserable existence. For it is more unbearable to them, then their life could ever be to you. But they can not kill themselves directly for to do so is to look upon this ultimate contradiction. The Joker's goal was for Batman to kill him, so that his view on the world proven right in the world. That his evaluation of existence in that reality is a nightmarish place devoid of rationality, meaning, and value.

The Joker knew this better than anyone, maybe that's why he took on a more positive persona. The Irony is profound...

But maybe he wasn't the only person that understood him... He looks over to Harley who laid on his shoulder. Through her eyes and her actions in the last hour that she cared for him and maybe Understood him.

She looks over into his eyes once more, "Are you alright B-man?"

"Yeah..." He says in a hollow voice, as if he didn't know what to do anymore. "I'm sorry Harley."

"It's ok B-man." She says with a slight smile. "I guess we are both a lil lost right now without Joker." She said as she touched the J on her choker. Then Harley go an idea...

She took the J off of her Choker and asked for a batarang. Batman was a little hesitant at first, but he let ago his distrust for the Jester and gave her one. Harley latches the J on the rang and gave a small Elegy before throwing the rang into the Sea.

"To my Puddin, For giving us some purpose in life. Rest in Peace my love..." She says as she throws the rang into the sea.

"That was beautiful Harley." Batman said with a slight smile to Harley.

"Thanks bats..." She says as she puts her arm through his and holds his hand as he stares back at the sea. "Batys, Do you remember a few years back when I was let out of Arkham? Then you hauled me back after a bad day?" She asks in a caring and nostalgic tone.

"You remember that day?" Batman asks in surprise, making Harley Blush.

"Yeah, I remember when you told me 'I know what it's like to rebuild a life.' Maybe... It's time we rebuilt our lives." Harley said in calm and confident tone.

"Yeah... We should." Batman said with a smile as the Harlequin came closer.

"And Batsy?" She asks as their faces came closer.

"Yes Harleen?"

"Do you remember this?" She asked as she and Batman kissed passionately atop of the derelict Ferris wheel, Their hand rapping around one another as their tongues fought the passionate war of the soul until they both ran out of breath.

"How could I forget?" The Dark Knight replied with a large grin with the confidence that he found someone who truly understood his pain.

_**The End.**_


End file.
